Accidentally cleared Downloads list. How can I recover or restore the Downloads list?
My situation is similar to:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1410815
but that thread is archived.
Problem: I opened the Downloads folder and meant to click 'Organize' but I accidentally clicked 'Clear Downloads'. All the names in the Downloads list are now gone and I want to bring them back.
Situation: I did not want to clear the Downloads list, all I wanted to do was learn what options were listed in the 'Organize' button. I was hoping there might be an option to have past Downloads (the names on the Downloads list, not the downloaded files themselves) sorted by date and by domain. But now all the names in the Downloads list are gone. I don't want this to happen again so what's the best solution for this problem?
cor-el says (in page linked above) that a backup of 'places.sqlite' can recover the Downloads list. I copied that file to my Desktop but I'm guessing that it's too late for this file to be of any use now, as I did this only *after* the Downloads list was cleared.
The information I've read about the places.sqlite file (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-bookmarks-and-history-will-not-be-functional , https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data , and https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile#w_bookmarks-downloads-and-browsing-history) seems to focus mainly on its relation to Bookmarks, not Downloads. Does everything that article say about restoring Bookmarks also apply to restoring Downloads?
I haven't made a backup before in Firefox specifially but my system (Linux) took a system snapshot (Timeshift) before this mistake happened. Would reverting the system to the previous snapshot allow me to access the old places.sqlite-wal file that has the now-missing Downloads list?
Also, is there a way to customize the appearance of Downloads window? I'd like to add some space between the 'Organize' button and the 'Clear Downloads' button. If I could have them separated just a little bit more, I think it might help to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.
In the meantime, I'm thinking of writing a script that regularly backs up the places.sqlite-wal file so that if this happens again, I can just use the backup. But as of now I'm uncertain that it will do what I need it to do.
Any help is appreciated. I hope I've provided enough information to make this report clear. If any needed info is missing, please let me know.
Thank you.